Heritage

Heritage structures take a special kind of engineering. Technical horsepower and advanced analytics are at a premium, combined with a genuine understanding of heritage architecture. Without that, heritage strengthening efforts can end up preserving the building, but seriously compromising the precious character features that make it special.

Holmes Consulting has decades of experience assessing and strengthening heritage structures across New Zealand and internationally. Our track record spans very large, complex government buildings, right through to smaller regional structures like courthouse or theatres. Whatever the structure, we’ve got the experience and understanding of heritage architecture to find solutions that achieve the delicate balance between strengthening and genuine preservation.

We’re also at the forefront of heritage analysis, using our own advanced Non Linear Time History Analysis (NLTHA). Applying NLTHA, we get a clear, accurate idea of the likely impact of different earthquake events, using real earthquake data. That in-depth understanding allows us to design solutions that are appropriate for the situation – solutions that are often less intrusive and obvious than traditional analysis methods could have achieved.

Right now, we’re working on great heritage strengthening projects right across the country, including the Arts Centre of Christchurch. The Arts Centre is one of the largest projects of its nature anywhere in the world, with 23 buildings spread over a large site with variable ground and structural conditions. This is such an important project, we’ve had a team of engineers based on site for more than four years.